Boys Tennis: Wissahickon conquers Plymouth Whitemarsh

LOWER GWYNEDD — A couple weeks after finishing in first and third place, respectively, in the Suburban One American Conference tournament, Wissahickon senior Bee Callahan and freshman Ben Wolfe are continuing to prove why the Trojans have one of the best all-around squads in the league.

The two singles players — first and second on the Wissahickon roster — remained undefeated in league play this season while helping to lead the Trojans to a 5-2 win over visiting Plymouth Whitemarsh in an in-conference match at Wissahickon High School on Wednesday afternoon.

Callahan defeated PW’s Scott Leopold, 6-1, 1-6 and 6-1, to help give Wissahickon (13-2, 6-1) the win over the Colonials (8-6, 5-2), who entered the match tied with the Trojans in the SOL American Conference before the two teams faced each other for the first and only time this season.

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“Being undefeated in the league means a lot to me,” Callahan said.

“It’s my senior year and it just means a lot to know that a lot of the players on the team look up to me.I didn’t play my best match today, but I’m glad I pulled through after losing the second set.I was more upset at myself than anything, but I pulled through in the end.”

“Bee has always been a talented player,” Wissahickon coach Mark Daniels said.“It’s a matter of him being not too hard on himself.

His brother was a fantastic player, so he has the tennis background.

This year, he got serious about tennis, being his senior year, and he wanted to do the best he could.He got his head together, he’s doing better in school and he’s an all-around better person.He’s a great leader for the team.”

Wolfe, a lefty who finished third at Suburbans, won his match despite playing sick, defeating PW junior Matt Sendecki 6-3 and 7-5.

For PW, despite the loss, the match was an improvement compared to previous years, as the Colonials haven’t been in a single match against Wissahickon in the past three seasons since Alfred Collins took over as head coach.In fact, the last two seasons have featured7-0 wins for Wissahickon before PW was finally able to come up with some set wins on Wednesday.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” Collins said. “The player who won for us is a freshman and we have a really strong freshmen class, so hopefully that’ll benefit us for next season.”

PW, which is now in third place in the league behind Upper Dublin and Wissahickon, knows it has some added pressure, as it is one of the upper echelon teams in the American Conference.

“Being in the top-three feels really good,” Collins said.“Some of the other teams don’t have some of the skilled players that the three major teams have, so we’re expected to win our other matches and that in itself puts pressure on us.We know we’re going to be more competitive next year than this year and we look forward to that.”

PW received a win from its third singles player, freshman Jake Schwartz, who defeated Wissahickon sophomore Srini Sunil by a score of6-1 and 6-1, as well as a victory from its second doubles team of seniors Dave Doll and Rob O’Brien, who defeated Wissahickon’s Greg Welsh (freshman) and Matt Hornbaker (senior), 6-4, 3-6 and 6-3.

The Trojans saw their first singles team of senior Andy Lee and junior Evan Cuff defeat PW juniors Brett Feldman and Andrew Luber by scores of 6-2 and 6-4. The third doubles team of juniors Kevin Kallukaran and Nikhil Kandpal also won for Wissahickon, defeating freshmen Nathan Levy and Jeke Neerenberg, 6-1 and 6-2.

Wissahickon’s fourth doubles team of Ryan Jarvis (junior) and Nimay Godbole also won their match, defeating PW’s Spencer Halsman and Blake Milstein, 6-0 and 7-6 (4).

“We’re missing two guys at doubles, so we had to make some switches and we had a good showing,” Daniels said.“We did a nice job and the guys did well filling in the lineup.”

Despite a 4-3 loss to archrival Upper Dublin earlier in the season, Callahan is confident that the Trojans, with some of the top players in the area, can compete with the Cardinals.And he looks forward to the possibility of playing them in districts.

“Because districts only has five spots, I think we’ll be fine,”Callahan said.“I’m looking forward to playing them again and hopefully, we get them in the first round.That would be nice.”